


Razor-Blade Smiles

by MissMorwen



Series: BuckyNat Prompts [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel 616
Genre: #BuckyNat Week, F/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Tumblr Prompt, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-05-31 06:56:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6460294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMorwen/pseuds/MissMorwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She seemed out of place at first, a young girl amongst soldiers, but then he saw her smile - wide and razor sharp. She wasn’t dancing, at least not in the traditional sense. With a gun in one hand and a knife in the other, she killed German soldiers more efficiently than most men did.</p><p>***********</p><p>Buckynat prompt: Natasha and Bucky meet during world war II.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Bucky noticed a flash of red well into the battle, like fire moving through the battlefield. He lifted his head, the scope of his rifle forgotten, and looked for the source. Steve could take care of himself with ordinary soldiers; he had the rest of the Howling Commandos to look out for him while Bucky was distracted. But if HYDRA had come up with another doomsday weapon, they would need to act swiftly.

He worried for nothing though, because it wasn’t actual flames, it was a girl, dancing through the battle. She seemed out of place at first, a young girl amongst soldiers, but then he saw her smile - wide and razor sharp. She wasn’t dancing, at least not in the traditional sense. With a gun in one hand and a knife in the other, she killed German soldiers more efficiently than most men did.

He shifted the rifle, using the scope to get a closer look at her. He had been wrong about her age too. Yeah, she was young, but not much younger than him. And the set around her eyes told him that she’d grown up all too soon like he had.

He was supposed to look out for Steve, not stare at the pretty ladies. But curiosity got the better of him. The redhead was targeting something, her progress not as random as he had first thought.

Tracing her trail, Bucky spotted her target, the building surrounded by German soldiers. Well, she had distracted him from worrying about what stupid stunt Steve would pull next, he ought to thank her for it.

He didn’t waste any more time, clearing a path for her with bullets fired in rapid succession.

He shifted the scope back at her, to check if she’d noticed and she was looking at him. She shouldn’t be able to, he was flat on the ground, among the bushes, and usually only Steve was able to pick him out with his enhanced, well, everything. But there she was, hands lifting the weapons like it was the hem of a dress, smiling a crooked smile that was no less sharp, yet tinged with humor.

And then she curtsied.

In the middle of a battlefield, this redheaded woman curtsied at him. Bucky shifted back to look out for Steve again, with grin on his face, wider than it’d had in weeks. He’d have to find her after the battle. No way he’d let her get away without knowing her name.

(When he couldn’t find her afterwards, he didn’t tell the others. Because Bucky knew what it would sound like and Steve had enough to worry about as it was. But she stayed with him for as long as he could still remember her. After that? Well, that was an entirely different story.)


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky saw her again, the red haired woman who had caught his attention so easily. Saw her several times over the decades, but the memory was removed each time. It wasn’t until he was free of Pierce and Hydra and of going back into the chair, his mind could begin reassembling itself. And then? Then it was only a matter of connecting the pieces.

She didn’t have a name at first. She started as something little more than a shadow and a sensation, but as memories returned to him, so did she. The shadow became a shape, then a person, knives in her hands and a smile on her lips.

She followed him every step of his journey back to himself. When he broke into the supposedly empty Hydra base to rummage for files, she was there. Just as she was there when he stalked a senator for days, making sure he had the right man. That he was really the one who’d wanted to see how many trained killers the Winter Soldier could take out with just his hands. (The answer was more than the senator had hired.)

Seeing her on TV marked the first time Bucky questioned his plans. Not because she now had a name and a voice, but because of what that new knowledge implied. If Steve was willing to work with the Black Widow, maybe he could forgive his old friend too.

It didn’t change his plans, though. As a sniper, Bucky had always been able to focus on a single target, ignoring everything else going on around him. That hadn't changed over the years. And so he went through his list. Destroying Hydra safe houses scattered all over America. Digging up information Hydra had on him. Tracking down the people that could make him forget his name again and taking them out (even the oldest one, almost 93 years old and nearly blind).

He didn’t kid himself. Even with the damage he’d done, Hydra was far from broken, but the branch that had made and maintained the Winter Soldier would take years to recover. He had burned that part to the ground and salted the earth.

When he closed his eyes, he could see Steve frowned at him – sickly looking, young Steve; beefy Steve still shocked by the horrors of war; Steve with unfamiliar lines around his eyes and a set to his shoulders like he used all that new strength to carry the weight of the world. The Widow? The Widow just waited in the shadows, with hands as bloody as his own.


	3. Chapter 3

After the war (the one between friends, that nearly tore them all apart), he sought her out. They had been on opposite sides and he’d never let something as fragile as memories of a past life stop him.

But when the dust had settled, he went to her. 

Her smile was as razor-sharp as the first time he saw her and, like him, she had barely aged in the passing decades. Best of all? She remembered him too.

(And her kisses were as sharp as her smile.)


End file.
